Transplantation of arthroscopic osteochondral autograft for repairing chondral defects is known in the art. The transplantation procedure typically involves providing a donor graft osteochondral core (from a selected donor site) and transplanting the osteochondral core into corresponding sized recipient sockets (of a recipient repair site).
Donor sites for osteochondral cores, capped with intact cartilage, are selected prior to notchplasty. If the chondral defect is a femoral one, donor sites are selected along the anterolateral and superior aspect of the notchplasty area, or on the superolateral and anterolateral aspect of the lateral femoral condyle in the non-weightbearing area above the sulcus terminalis. At the donor sites, multiple osteochondral cores 5 mm to 9 mm in diameter and 10 to 15 mm long are harvested using various cutting instruments.
Recipient repair sites typically are located on the weightbearing area of the medial and lateral femoral condyles. Full-thickness chondral defects, typically larger than 10 mm in diameter, and up to 20 mm, are selected for treatment. Recipient sockets at the repair sites are prepared, and the donor cores are transferred and press-fitted into the recipient sockets.
Although the above-described transplantation procedure works well for various chondral defects, improvements are needed in the formation of the donor cores, especially to facilitate transplant insertion, and to reduce contamination and promote healing of the recipient site.